Government Open Source Office deal set to provide major savings

UK Government buyers have signed a new commercial deal for Open Source office applications on desktop, mobile, and cloud. The "Cloud Transition Agreement" between the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), an executive arm of the Cabinet Office, and British Open Source software firm Collabora Productivity, states the Government's commitment to Open Source and Open Document Format, and offers major cost savings for public sector bodies.

"Moving to the cloud, adopting Open IT Standards, and saving the taxpayer money are three key Government objectives achieved by today's agreement" said Michael Meeks, General Manager of Collabora Productivity. "Open Source flexibility, always-on access, and British innovation are combining to deliver powerful productivity to Government".

Two products are covered by the agreement: Collabora Office is the desktop office suite that supports over one hundred document formats, including Microsoft Office and Google Docs. Forthcoming Collabora CloudSuite extends Collabora Office with cloud-based and mobile access, providing viewing and editing locally on devices, and online in web browsers. It is set for release later this year.

"Technologies provided by Collabora will play a key role in Government IT transformation"said Michael Meeks, General Manager of Collabora Productivity

"Collabora will work together with The Crown Commercial Service to raise awareness of the benefits of the Open Document Format (ODF) as well as the more general benefits and cost savings of Open Source client solutions". He added: "An integral part of this agreement reflects the level of support and commitment Collabora will provide concerning the deployment of the Open Document Format".

All non-profit making Government Organisations benefit from the agreement, and will be able to deploy the software internally to host private document clouds integrated with existing systems. With a comprehensive feature set comparable to other office suites, Collabora's applications have potential to benefit all arms of Government. These products compliment Collabora's existing document migration and interoperability services available from the G-Cloud Digital Marketplace.

Collabora Productivity delivers LibreOffice products and consulting to the enterprise. With the largest team of certified LibreOffice engineers, it is a leading contributor to the LibreOffice codebase and community. Collabora Office provides a business-hardened office suite with long term multi-platform support. Collabora Productivity is a division of Collabora Ltd., the global software consultancy specializing in providing the benefits of Open Source to the commercial world, specialising in mobile, automotive and consumer electronics industries.